Just a very quick heads up to all three of you that read my blog... The kids, all five of them, will be heading to auntie's house this weekend. Well, they are all there already actually and have been since last night. That means that I have a house all to the wife and I for the entire day today.
Wish me luck. Actually, wish her luck. I do believe the chase is on. 
And in case it wasn't blatantly clear, you are not going to get much out of me this weekend.
Tonight I was walking out the door to go to the store when I saw a package on the ground. Not recognizing what it was I decided to pick it up and look it over. It was a sample from Safeway, our local grocery store.
What was it a sample of, you might ask, knowing that something normal would never get me to write about in my blog?
You're going to love this...
It was an Always pad. With wings.
Now that, in and of itself, isn't ridiculously funny. The kids thought it was a blast. At least that is what my wife told me. But there was something that I found to be terribly funny about it.
You see, Safeway sent it to me. That's right. A pad. Addressed to a Mr. Robert Gonzalez.
Anyone have any ideas what I can do with one of these things?
This morning the unthinkable happened. My sister's truck was stolen. From right in front of my house.
I am still so shocked, angry, nervous, anxious and confused that I cannot really find the words to to put to this post. I cannot believe anyone would do something like this. I mean, who the hell steals a truck?
The saddest part of this mess is that the keys to the truck, the ones I posted about a few days ago, I think were used in the theft. The truck had an alarm on it that was not visible from the outside of the truck. The only way to keep the alarm from being heard is to disable it with the remote. I know the alarm never went off. My wife was sleeping on the couch when the truck was stolen.
Another thing that really pisses me off about this is that those keys that were used to steal the truck has my house key on them. What this meant for me today was that after calling the police, insurance companies, bosses and my sister I still had to contend with changine the locks on my garage and my house. That just sucks.
In the end I spent the day being mad, being hurt, feeling stupid and feeling confused. My sister reached out to me to help me and it cost her her truck. All I can hope for is that the truck gets found in somewhat decent shape.
Until then I need to take some time to get a grip on my feelings. I am so pissed off right now I could punch something.
My wife's cousin that lives in San Francisco is going to be moving to Seattle at the end of the year. To celebrate this move (yes, it is a good thing) they held a barbecue at my wife's parents house today. They could not have picked a better day to old this gathering either.
The weather was absolutely beautiful today. It was sunny with a slight breeze. It was warm but not hot. It was just awesome. Actualy, it was perfect for a gathering of family for food and fellowship.
The burgers were awesome, the appetizers were awesome, the beer was awesome, the wine was awesome.
I mean really, there was not a thing wrong with this day. The kids had a great time, the adults had a great time. It was just an all around wonderful day. I wish it could have lasted longer.
And I really wish I would have found my sister's truck keys. It has been almost a week now. And the only reason I am thinking about them now is that last Sunday when I left my in-law's house I had them.
Oh well, at least the day was good.
Today I had the fortune to meet with a client that I have been working for for quite some time. They are from San Diego but had business to do up in Sacramento so we made it a point to meet face to face and talk. So today I drove to Stockton to meet with them.
I am glad I did.
They are a great team to work with. They have such an amazing understanding of their business and their customers that any developer that ever gets a chance to work with someone like these folks would be blessed by it. They bring such a zest to building a business that just about anyone could learn a thing or two about business building from these two.
Plus the drive was nice. The weather was good. The coffee at Peet's was good. All was good. Except the number of people at the Peet's in Stockton. Now that was just insane. I didn't know that many people could be interested in Peet's coffee.
But back to the business at hand. I have to say that I am excited to be working for this client. I almost don't to use the word client because I feel that our relationship is so much more than developer<->client. Regardless, I am getting more and more excited about the work I am doing for them.
I just hope I can take some of their knowledge of their customers with me because that is something you can't pay for but certainly pays off for all involved.
Yesterday I wrote about why I could not vote for Barack Obama. To offer an alternative I am going to post why I cannot vote for John McCain.
I hope this also offers some insight as to how so many people can still be undecided at this point in this very hotly contested presidential election. I truly believe that there is a part of the population that knows choice is being hidden from them and as such know that there are alternatives to two men being offered to us as our next potential president. I also believe that there are people in this country that think that there are only two choices for president and know that neither man is qualified to be it.
A with yesterday, let me say that I am not a supporter of John McCain. While he does line up more closely with my ideals that Barack Obama does, he is still miles away from where I want my next president. And as with yesterday, let me also add that my unwillingness to support him as a viable candidate for president rests on his values and the promises he has made during his campaign as well as how he presents himself as a leader in the various debates and television appearances he has made.
Here a few of the reasons that I cannot vote for John McCain:
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Economic policy
John McCain has said that his plan for economic stimulation revolves around offering significant tax breaks to very large corporations and businesses while offering smaller taxes to middle class tax payers. Lower income earners kinda get the screws put to the while the government ends up sacrificing an enormous amount of revenue from taxes while the large corporations benefit tremendously.
One thing that I do not fully understand about this plan of McCain's is how this is going to grow our economy? Giving tax breaks to companies is all well and good as long as there is some sort of give on the part of the companies. In McCain's tax plan there are no gives. Companies get to keep more money without any reason to bring jobs back onto American soil.
This is fundamentally flawed and stupid. To bring jobs back to Americans you need to give companies an incentive to do so. Giving them a tax break and hoping they employ Americans is lame. McCain dropped the ball on this one.
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Education
While McCain's education plan does seem better than Obama's plan it is still lacking in many declarations. For one thing neither candidate mentions anything about a parents right to homeschool their children. If education is the responsibility of the parents first, which it is, then parents should have a choice to educate their children themselves. There should be no distinction between a public school, private school and home school as it relates to choice or options for a parent.
McCain's plan still puts a lot of government into the education of American children and offers nothing in the way of alternatives outside of an institutional setting for education. And while both attempt to cover the cost of a college education as an issue neither really cover the issue of an education. McCain plans to offer parents a choice. And?
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Energy and environment
Seems to me that every choice a president makes is "the hard choice". At least that is what McCain would have you believe. And though he does make some attempt at trying to make you believe that he will ween America from foreign oil he does not really offer a plan to do that other than off shore drilling and forcing public transportation into alternative fuel use.
How exactly does that solve our energy crisis? He has offered nothing tangible in terms of a solution when it comes to getting America free from Middle East oil. He has done nothing that says he will try to protect the environment while reducing our dependence on foreign oil. He has offered nothing except long sentences that use a lot of words I am not sure he understands himself.
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Healthcare
How can you even consider taxing healthcare as a benefit? This is the single stupidest thing that John McCain has put on his campaign ticket. How are American families supposed to survive when the money we earn now is not enough to get us through and we have to pay taxed on a benefit offered to us through our employers.
McCain is totally missing the mark on this one, apparently looking at healthcare as something that should be easily covered by taxing those financially stable enough to have it. Shame on you John McCain. People are already forgoing medical treatment because they cannot even afford the premiums. Making them pay taxes on it is just too much.
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Iraq
One of the most heartless and cruel things I have ever heard John McCain utter came in response to a question he was asked about supporting President Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq. The question was "Would you still support the president's decision if he war lasted 50 years?". His response was something along the lines of "If it lasted another hundreds years I would still be happy with it." Moron.
As I said yesterday there is no right answer to this situation. Keeping our troops there without good cause is just plain hostile and stupid. If there was one thing that makes me not like John McCain as a person it is his stance on Iraq. It just sucks.
So there you have it. A republican's take on John McCain. I appreciate that he served our country as a soldier and prisoner of war. But we are not back in the jungles of 'Nam John McCain. There is a battle to fight, you can be sure of that. But it cannot be fought with the weapons you bring to the table.
The American people cannot afford to have you as a president.
With much talk swirling around about who is voting for who and why I thought it only appropriate to post my thoughts about this. It would seem that many people are split between a McCain/Obama decision. Since there are more choices out that for president than just those two I thought I would make my preference known like everyone else.
Let me say this first off... I am not a supporter of Barack Obama. It is not because he is a democrat. It is not because he is black. My unwillingness to support him as a viable candidate for president rests on his values and the promises he has made during his campaign as well as how he presents himself as a leader in the various debates and television appearances he has made.
Here a few of the reasons that I cannot vote for Barack Obama:
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Economic policy
Obama has stated repeatedly that he intends to give 95% of working families a tax break. What he hasn't said yet is how he intends to pay for it. What it looks like, and what he has inferred, is that the wealthiest people in America and big corporations would end up footing the bill for this idea. While I like getting money back on my taxes, it seems eerily socialistic to rob from the poor to give to the middle class.
Obama has also stated that he intends to offer tax cuts to small businesses and start ups. But he has very quiet on what he intends to do for established businesses and medium to large size companies. From what he has said it seems clear that big businesses will get pinched even more on their taxes so small businesses can be given relief. I am not a financial expert but didn't American business start off shoring work because it is do darn expensive to do business here? Just asking.
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Education
Obama is promising to put more government into the educational plan for our children. This scares and saddens me greatly. There is so much government intervention in the education of children as it is now and our kids are suffering all the more for it each year.
More and more kids are failing, getting pregnant early, dropping out and generally not getting the education they deserve. There is not enough money for schools or for quality teachers. Nor is there enough money for material for instruction. What you end up with is fewer teachers teaching more kids with less resource. And his plan involves putting kids into school even earlier than they are now.
Since when has government been responsible for teaching our kids?
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Energy and environment
Renewable energy is a major buzzword in this election because of the recent spike in fuel prices. Dependance on foreign oil, environmental issues surrounding the use of fossil fuels and cost of filling up a tank have given the candidates a wonderful field of competition for votes.
Obama's position that he will invest in alternative fuels and increase energy efficiency in America while creating new five million new "green" jobs sound wonderful. In theory. In practice there is no way to do any of this without significant government money. Money the government does not have. The only way for the goverment to get this money, outside of just printing it, is to raise taxes. Which seems oddly contrary to his plan to cut taxes. Unless he plans on having big business foot the bill for this one too.
Almost makes you want to NOT be rich, huh?
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Abortion
Barack Obama, though he has evaded this question repeatedly, has finally came out and said that he supports a woman's right to choose. In other words, he is for maintaining a woman's right to abort an unborn child even to the extent of late term, partial birth abortions.
This does not sit right with me at all. I support a woman's right to choose as well, just not choosing whether to abort a child. Conception starts with sex. Most anyone that has gone through an American public school knows this either through classroom education or street education so there is no excuse for getting pregnant when the number one cause of pregnancy is sex. A woman can choose to not have sex (in most cases - yes, rape and incest are edge cases but we are not talking edge cases are we?). When a woman chooses to not have sex she is in essence choosing to not be pregnant.
Abortion issue settled.
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Healthcare
Universal, government supplied healthcare sounds wonderful. The big warm fuzzy gubment taking care of its peeps. But in a system where our veterans are getting screwed for medical attention I cannot imagine a universal healthcare plan doing much better for us.
Not to mention the fact that something like this would need governance and oversight, which means expense and cost. And again, Mr. Obama has said that he is going to give 95% of Americans tax cuts. So are the wealthy 5% supposed to cover this one, too? And if they are, can a brother get a little of that action up in here?
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Iraq
This is a hot topic right now. It has been for the past few years. It is an ugly situation in which American men and women are getting killed by people that really hate Americans. We went into Iraq because there was cause to go into Iraq.
Now the enemy has moved into Pakistan and Obama believe that our work in Iraq is handled and we can just come home. That seems counterproductive for a few reasons. First, if we chase the enemy into Pakistan the same thing will happen there that is happening in Iraq. Then, when we are all out of Iraq the enemy will just go back there, or Afghanistan once Obama gets our troops out of there.
There is no right answer to this situation. Leaving Iraq to run to Pakistan is a monumental risk that will ultimately end up in epic failure. Just saying.
So that is it in a nutshell. I think Obama is a great orator and public speaker. He knows how to communicate to a crowd, he knows how to politic the media, he knows how to evade questions, he knows how to appear sincere. He has all the makings of a top tier elected official.
Just not one I could ever vote for.
This is going to sound bad. You have been warned.
It seems that this election, for some reason, has been the most hotly contested election in recent memory. The sheer number of people speaking out about politics through various forms of media is astounding. There are so many new voters this year (folks who were not of legal voting age during the last presidential race) and so many more people in general voicing opinion, satisfaction, dissatisfaction and malcontent with our candidates that the results of this election are going to be historic no matter the outcome.
Yesterday was an especially crappy day for me. Again, not to whine too much, but...
I woke up early and got ready to go to work. I got myself dressed and prepared like I normally do. I made coffee put all my stuff in my pockets. All my stuff, that is, except for the keys to my sister's truck.
I could not, for the life of me, figure out where those keys went. I looked all over the house, all over my Suburban, all of the yard, all over everywhere and the keys did not turn up.
Eventually I had to give up the search for the keys for the morning because I needed to get to work. I had to have my wife drive me to work and drop me off. Which is no easy feat seeing as she had to take the kids to their school, which is in Hayward, then drive me to my office, which is in Concord. Which meant that I did not get to work until about 10:30 yesterday morning.
And which also meant that I had no vehicle yesterday. At all.
Fortunately for me I was able to work something out that resulted in me being able to get to work with a minimum of fuss. But I have to tell you that this has been a very stressful time for me. This just adds so much more to the pile of crap I have been wading through the last couple of months.
I so cannot wait for this to end.
It has been said that nothing grows slower than a bad haircut (not even our current economic situation). I could not agree more.
I wanted to make sure I looked nice for the weekend. Actually, I just didn't want to look like a shaggy dog troll. But since I had somewhere to get to on Saturday and very little time to get my haircut I settled for the fastest cut available. Which happened to be with a barber I do not usually go to.
And now I remember why.
My haircut is pretty simple. Use a 000 blade on the sides, straight up like a fade, then cut may bangs in front to about a half inch below my hairline, then trim the top to match. What I got was a grown out half flat top that never did quite live up to what I wanted or asked for.
Normally it takes my hair about four weeks to grow to a length that requires a trim. I think this haircut is going to need to go after a week. We'll see.
